Designed for famed Jazz crossover guitarist Howard Roberts, the Howard Roberts Custom is one of those guitars that probably would never have crossed Gibson’s mind if it hadn’t been for the exact timeframe and player they were making it for.

Though Roberts was famous for using a heavily modified ES-150 with an odd notch in the body on the bass side, the Howard Roberts Custom’s origins are much less intentional than one would suspect. Using the platform of the cheaper, slower selling L-4 but with several modifications, the Howard Roberts Custom was originally built as a brand deal between Roberts and Epiphone (built, at the time, in the Gibson factory right alongside all the much more expensive Gibsons), made years before the Gibson one came around, designed in 1962 and produced through the 1970’s. This Epiphone version sometimes featured a fully solid spruce top, as opposed to the laminate that the Gibson models would come to be made with.

As the story goes, CMI (Gibson’s parent company) had designer Andy Nelson work with Roberts to flesh out ideas for a signature model, and when Epiphone, unprompted, announced the “Howard Roberts Standard”, it had nearly nothing to do with the drawings sent by Nelson and Roberts nearly a year previous, reasoning that it was too costly to produce an entirely separate model, instead modifying an already slow selling model give it new life. Nonetheless, Roberts fully embraced the guitar as it came, calling it “the best guitar he ever owned".

When Gibson started full time production of their own Roberts Standard and Custom in 1973 or so, the guitar had been changed to feature a laminate top, flashier inlay, and ebony fretboard and bridge instead of rosewood.

This 1974/5 model (Gibson’s serials aren’t clear around this time) is an historic time capsule of the era for sure, with all the 70’s flair one could want. The body is laminate maple, the neck is the usual early 70’s 3 piece, the pickup is what Gibson called their “Super Humbucker”, mounted right above the oval sound hole. It features a 25.5” scale, which coupled with the fat sounding 70’s humbucker makes for a robust, if thumpy sound, perfect for Roberts’ blues inspired jazz.

These guitars are known for their somewhat unorthodox electronics: instead of a tone and volume, they feature a volume and two tone rolloff knobs, one for highs and one for mids. Both work great on this example.

In amazing condition, with just one or two knicks on the whole guitar. The red finish has faded ever so slightly, into a gorgeous transparent cherry. Marked factory second on the headstock.

Comes with a non-original hard case.